


The Elemental Warriors

by the_real_anonymouse66



Series: The Elemental Warriors [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Asian-American Character, Black Character(s), Canon Bisexual Character, Canon Gay Character, Canon LGBTQ Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Elemental Magic, F/F, F/M, Hispanic Character, Homestuck References, Interdimensional Travel, LGBTQ Character of Color, M/M, Mexican Character, Nonbinary Character, Other, Pansexual Character, Prophecies, The Elemental Warriors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 18,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26375203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_real_anonymouse66/pseuds/the_real_anonymouse66
Summary: Just your average elemental fiction written by an average kid.  Four kids have elemental powers and train under a wise mentor.And then they meet and become friends with four rivals, accidentally create three other abilities and give them to kids they know, start a revolution at the age of twelve, explore gender, sexuality, and romance, and attempt to overthrow said wise mentor, of course.  So you shouldn't read this, because it's perfectly average and generic.
Relationships: Bella Falshim / Jade Semmos, Coral Dormien / Paul Athis, Ember Miles / Addison McCaffee, Ethan Varian / Coral Dormien, Jade Semmos / Sage Messenger (Platonic), Jake Liu / Allen Bauer, Jake Liu / Ember Miles (Platonic), Sage Messenger / Paul Athis (Platonic), Sky Viento / Addison McCaffee, Sky Viento / Ember Miles, Sky Viento / Ember Miles / Addison McCaffee
Series: The Elemental Warriors [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916767
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Sky

**Author's Note:**

> cringe warning! i wrote a lot of this last year aaaaaa
> 
> if you catch any factual errors, please notify me! this is a very diverse book and as im not all of these genders, sexualities, races, and disabilities, there are some things i get wrong. also, i keep changing the last names of the guardians
> 
> faq and playlists: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26376121  
> wip carrd: https://the-elemental-warriors.carrd.co

I’m gonna try and explain everything in one chapter, though I’m totally going to fail. I’m using a typewriter, and I’ll have to end this chapter way too early. I can’t stop it; I just have to let the story flow and keep typing. The story will explain itself, but I feel like I should explain what the heck will happen.

My name is Sky Viento. When I started middle school nearly three years ago, I became something I never imagined I would become, and found a different part of me I never saw, one that could fight and help the world (and not just pick up trash along the road, this isn’t your typical memoir). 

I also found something new in my friends, who now shared my title of Elemental Warrior. I started using magic every day, though now that I realize it, Luna never called it that. My life changed forever, starting with the moment I opened my schedule.

See, I’ve always wondered why people write nonfiction books. Sure, I liked some of them, but why in the name of heck would someone write an 800-page biography of Alexander Hamilton, or a narrative of the life of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, or (wait for it) a depiction of scientist’s work on an island made of volcanic ash next to Iceland? I’d like a nice fantasy story instead, thank you very much. (Apologies to anyone who made a better fantasy story. I might be disrespecting your universe in this.) Then, when our huge adventure came to an end, I realized someone, someday, would find out about us, whether on accident or at the hands of a dying fellow Warrior. And they would want answers.

So I’m writing this book. It’ll turn out 50% hilarious, 50% dead serious, and 100% nonfiction.

Also, some words about the formatting: This is going to be a 3-book chronicle of our (guess) 3 years as Warriors. I’m also including several interviews between my friends and stringing them together so we alternate between chapters. 

_< You will also see several notes in this format. They’re almost always me butting into someone else’s interview, and it’s usually for a good cause. Well, sometimes.>_

Three years may not seem like a lot, but it’s long enough to get through middle school, and it’s long enough to change your life. I’ve only been an Elemental Warrior for that much, but I’ve already had enough adventure for a lifetime.

My name is Sky Viento. Before I started sixth grade, I never knew the power I had held within me since I was born, or the strings of fate that had been pulling me and my friends together since kindergarten. The only stories I told were ones of talking animals or magical powers or underwater exploration. And in a way, I’ll tell another one today. But this time, it’s real.

I’m only fourteen, sitting at a typewriter home alone. Most people don’t think of that as very powerful, but wait and see. I write faster than I think, and you’re about to see the power of truth.


	2. Coral

I’m starting this from the beginning. Don’t know ‘bout y’all, but I’m starting with the text string.

I could just feel something brewing in my town, just north of Kansas City. It was getting bigger, and it was going to burst soon.

I need to stop being cryptical. The Missouri River was flooding. It had been flooding for a while, in fact, but as I opened my mailbox, sifting through today’s mail and grinning at the sight of my schedule, a headache sprouted in the back of my head. Somehow, I knew it was connected to the river flooding.

As I went back inside and started opening the letter, my headache grew much bigger, but I decided to ignore it. But it felt like my mind was a metal detector, and that schedule was an anvil. So as soon as I was about to read the letter, I… had to make a beeline for the Advil.

Even though I knew the headache was connected to the river—and, obviously, the letter—, I told myself: _ignore that. Your mind’s playing tricks on you._

When I got back from the Advil break, I picked up my phone, glanced at my schedule, and texted my friends my teachers:

Coral: **Classes in order: Rowan, Hudson, Dawn, Van Ness, Hamilton, Pendleton**

Sky: **zact same, except for last period**

**I mean fifth period. and it’s seventh grade math.**

I rolled my eyes. Sky _had_ to tell us she was too smart for grade-level math. I mean, at first glance she’s only a writer, but it didn’t stop her from bragging about excelling in every other subject whenever possible.

_< If you say one more negative thing about me in this book, I will edit you out of it.>_

I’m just telling the truth. This is a _nonfiction_ book.

_< mumble mumble>_

Ignoring that comment, I will continue the string…

Ember: **hey me too!**

Sky: **yay, maybe I won’t die alone**

Ember: **but I have facs [family and consumer science] for third period**

Sky: **you never cease to disappoint me**

**although it would be a huge coincidence if all our classes are together**

Ember: **yeah**

Sage: **Sup, just logged on**

**Hey where’s Bella?**

Bella was a newer member of our friendship circle. I’d forgotten to add her to our text group.

Coral: **she just texted me**

**same except 1st period is chorus**

Ember: **suspicious**

Coral: **really**

I had, in fact, just received a text with that information, but Ember was suspicious a lot.

Sage: **Wow, this friendship circle is coincidence town**

**As for myself, same as Coral except science and math switch**

Coral: w **ow you’re right sage**

**I wonder why pretty much all our classes are together**

Ember: **YOU GUYS**

**i think the schedule cordinaters are conspiring against us**

***coordinators**

**i mean, just think about it**

Coral: **dream on**

Ember: **seriously**

Coral: **JUST SHUT UP**

Sky: **¿qué?**

Coral: **sorry, just a huge headache**

Sage: **Have you tried the latest improvement in headache medicine…**

Coral: **yes, I’ve tried advil**

**just now in fact, hasn’t settled in yet**

Ember: **same thing going on here i guess**

Sky: **weird**

That thing with the headaches, as we would find out, was only the first—I mean second, there’s the schedules too— of many weird things to come.

Hey! Good news: you only have to turn the page to see another one!


	3. Sage

Okay… should I start with the text group?

_< Coral just did that.>_

Well… I have to talk about at least something. You’re already typing.

_< *awkward silence while we try to think of something to talk about*>_

_< Well, you could tell them about that thing at Target.>_

Oh yes, that. That was confusing for like a month. Okay then, let’s go.

My mom and I were back-to-school shopping at Target the weekend before school started, after the schedule fiasco. My mom pushed the red cart and I followed. As we turned a corner, my mom shouted, “Nikki! Long time no see!” I mentally groaned. One of my mom’s teacher friends had appeared, but that wasn’t what bothered me. 

The thing that really bothered me was her son that she pulled along with her. Paul was my age, and we had known each other since we were toddlers.

Now, whenever we met, the air felt way too awkward. I did what I had to do then, and said, “I’ll go get the tape.” I had no idea what we were going to do with tape in middle school, but it was on the supply list. Middle school was going to be weird.

Screw Paul, he followed me. “I’ve been wanting to tell you something,” he said as he walked. Wait, what?! I mean, we were close (or had been five years ago at least), but not that close. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for impact. Here’s what he said:

“It’s weird that I’m telling you this, but I feel like I should. I’m in pretty much the exact same classes as four of my friends, and I have no idea why.”

At first I thought: _Odin? This is Heimdall. Yeah, I’m blowing this horn because FRICKIN’ RAGNAROK IS HERE._ (And yeah, I’ve read Norse myths. Call me a nerd.) And then I thought: _Oh wait, hold on. HE DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HIS STUPID FEELINGS! HALLELUJIAH!_

So I said, “That’s pretty much the same with me.” Paul replied, “And then there are the conspiracy theories that don’t help…”

I said “Ember” as soon as Paul said “Allen”, and then for some reason I couldn’t stop giggling. Once I settled down (it took a while), we stood awkwardly for a couple minutes, and then Paul’s eyes grew wide. He spit out a word I hoped his mom was not around to hear, and then he ran to one end of the aisle, stuck his head out, and looked around.

“What’s going on?” I asked. Paul tried to explain. “Don’t ask how I know-because even I don’t know how I know- but there’s a guy in the store and he’s looking for us.”

“Looking for us?!” I yelped. “Is it my mom?”

“Well, I can sort of hear him, and his voice is definitely male,” Paul explained. That couldn’t be good. “Do you know where he is?” I asked. He pressed his hands to his temples, like he was trying to get fresh-squeezed brain juice out of it. “I’m trying to- wait. Aisle nine.”

“Where are we??” I asked, always asking questions. I peeked out of the aisle, looking at the number. “OMG, we’re in aisle twelve?!” Paul, just as terrified as me, suggested, “Should we-“

“We’re in a Target. We can’t hide.”

“Point taken.” Paul grabbed a bunch of glass paint containers and started walking out of the aisle. “Wait,” I said. “I need protection, too.”

Just as I said that, a gaping hole of dirt formed in front of me, swallowing way too much things (including all the remaining glass paint containers). It spit up a gigantic earthen shield and closed. Weighing the nonexistent paint containers against the shield, I picked it up. It was surprisingly light, even though it was huge and that it was made of what looked like really packed-together dirt.

Paul looked behind him, saying, “Where did you get that?” when he noticed my shield. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “It just came out of the ground.” And on we marched.

When we reached aisle nine in a matter of seconds, Paul said, “Okay, so the guy’s still in there. I want us to turn the corner on the count of three. One…

“Two…

“Three.” We turned the corner. Standing in front of us, frowning at us, was a garden gnome.

Paul, a little overexcited, threw a paint thingie right over the gnome’s head.

The garden gnome started to talk, somehow. He said, “Beware, for in four days you will underestimate your power. Beware, for soon you will learn what is going on. Beware, for as soon as you realize something is different, every secret will unravel. Beware, for soon the monsters will come for you.”

Then the garden gnome became stationary, rocking side to side on his ceramic feet, until gravity could pull both down, smiling with happy, chubby cheeks. My dirt shield dissolved.

Not knowing what else to say, I shouted, “Someone left a garden gnome in aisle nine!” turned around, and ran.


	4. Ember

Picture it. Your first day of school. If you were going into second grade, it might be a sign of fresh starts, cool new teachers, and maybe even new playground equipment!

If you were going into sixth grade (or whatever grade you start middle school on), it would be a sure sign of impending doom. 

As I walked through the doors of Riverscene Middle School, I felt like my stomach was turning upside down. I checked my schedule. Why did those people have to put me in 7th grade math? This was going to be hard already! Oh well, at least I would be with my friends in all my classes except FACS.

I looked down at my schedule again. Where to find room 104…? There were 3 hallways that stretched out from the gigantic, empty lobby. I wished I had gotten a map. 

The bell rang. In a panic, I turned right.

Don’t ask me how I got to homeroom. It involved trekking across the entire school and being REALLY late. Soon I would find out what detention was like.

Sky, Coral, and Sage beckoned me over to a four-chair circular table. “We’ve been waiting for you, Ember,” Coral said amidst the chatter from the other tables. Oh yay. “We’re going to do a meditation circle.”

“It was her idea,” Sky said, pointing at Sage. “She insisted on it.”

“Okay guys, I want us all to close our eyes,” Sage said as I sat down. “Hold hands…channel positivity into your brain… think positive thoughts. I WILL succeed. This WILL be an amazing year…”

“The seventh graders WILL beat me up in math,” Sky said, making me snort.

Sage ignored that comment. “Now open your eyes,” she finished. We did. Then we looked down and screamed. “¡Mierda!” Sky yelled.

We were floating at the top of the ceiling with no gravity holding our chairs down. Things escalated quickly. Coral let go of Sky and Sage’s hands, breaking the weird connection we’d had. Then Sky and Sage quickly let go of my hands. I didn’t realize why until I clasped them together a few seconds later, and felt them burning up. _Fast._

My eyes grew wide as I thought up a brilliant idea. Would it work? I prayed that no one got hurt in the pursuit, then I put my arms at my sides, palms to the ground, praying that this would work. Sure enough, a minute later, they were on fire and I was in full jetpack mode. 

I may have screamed, “I AM IRON MAN!”

It was super fun, until I blew a hole in the wall with my body. It hurt. A lot.

Meanwhile, things were just as crazy for Sky, Coral, and Sage. Well, I think so. Sky was probably invisible, because I couldn’t see her even from my sky-high (pardon the pun) perch.

Coral was having a little less fun. Every time she frowned (which was a lot, because there was a bunch of frown-worthy stuff happening), water would shoot out of her hand. Once it hit the teacher square in the face, and even though the said teacher had seen where it came from, she blamed it on one of those squirty Gatorade bottles.

Sage was… I don’t really know. It looked like she was just slowly building a dirt wall around her, mortified at the rampage around her, like _why do these people have to be my friends whyGodwhyme._

All in all, it was a really chaotic five minutes. But the weirdest part was that no one else noticed.

At lunch that day, we all met up. Sage had saved seats for everyone. “That was really weird in homeroom,” Sky commented as she sat down. “I mean, how _did_ you do that jetpack thing, Ember?” Blushing, I replied, “Well, flames just started, like, shooting out of my hand, and I just thought, _okay, why not try it?_ “

Sky chuckled as Coral sat down.

“Hey, I got some good news, Sky…” I said, leaning towards her. “If any of those dumb seventh graders try to hurt you, I can just… MELT THEM TO PIECES!!!” I pointed a finger at the ceiling. A cone of fire shot out of it (as planned), burning a gigantic hole in the ceiling (not as planned). A bunch of yoga balls dropped out of it, bouncing off people’s heads and into their lunches. I don’t know how someone could not notice a yoga ball sitting on their lunch tray, but all the people under those circumstances did just that.

“That must be the auxiliary gym,” I mumbled, making my friends cry with laughter.

Okay, I’m done now. How did I do?

_< Aaurgh, you ruined it! It was going to be perfect! That’s going to be in the book!>_

It’s your turn next, Sky.

_< mumble mumble>_


	5. Sky

The rest of that day was a blur. None of the weird stuff happened. The seventh graders didn’t beat me and Ember up. Which was weird, because nothing weird happening for 8 hours was weirder than… well, you get the idea. That was already enough repetitions of _weird_.

All the day had been besides homeroom and lunch was a bunch of waiting, mad dashes to lockers, and detention slips. Tiring, but boring. So naturally, focusing on the _tiring_ part, I went to bed at eight, and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Instantly, I was transported into a dream. This was a weird dream, though what else was new? I was floating through space, unable to breathe or talk. But just as I was running out of air, I noticed that I was zooming towards a black hole. I panicked for a second, but then I told myself, _Relax, it’s just a dream._ Interesting. Usually I lost the rational part of myself during dreams, but it was there.

I was sucked through the black hole and transported… somewhere. It looked the same as when I was in outer space, except there was a sea of green below me, and now I could breathe… wait. I was falling into a forest. I forced myself into skydiver position, spread-eagle and all. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for impact, but it never came. I looked down and opened my eyes. I was floating a foot off the ground. I touched a knee to the Earth, or whatever bizarre version of it this was, but the rest of my body was still floating. I touched the other knee to the ground, made my back vertical, and—tada!—I was kneeling. I stood up and brushed myself off.

“Oookay,” I said, surprised that I could talk and that this did not at all feel like a dream. I looked around, and noticed Coral, Sage, and Ember on the ground around me. I also noticed a clearing with four tree stumps, a huge log, and, in the middle, an inviting-looking campfire. Not knowing what else to do, I walked over there, surprised at how not tired I felt.

All my friends followed me after getting up. As we sat down on the four stools, Sage asked, “So, do you think this is a dream?” I replied, “It feels like it isn’t, but what else could it be?” Coral and Ember nodded their heads in agreement. Sage said, “Well,I don’t really-“

“I see you have found your way here,” a voice boomed from above us. We didn’t even flinch (except for me; I muttered some things in Spanish _)_ ; that was how weird our week had been. (I realize we keep using the word weird; sorry about that) A figure descended into the clearing onto the log in front of our stump-circle. 

Her appearance is hard to describe, but I’ll try my best. Her skin was black- and _black_ black, not brown black, blacker than coal. Her hair was—surprise—also pitch black, but floating in the air like it had been flapping in the wind but had suddenly been turned to stone. Her dress was midnight blue and dotted with diamonds that sparkled like stars in the night sky. Her eyes were kind and dark green, like a gentle forest at twilight.

Then she started to talk.

“I believe you have been asking very many questions since you opened your schedules a week ago. I am here to answer those questions, and to train you so you can protect this world.

“My name is Luna, Queen of the Night.” Luna faltered for a little bit for some reason but moved on. “You four—Sky Viento, Coral Dormien, Sage Messenger, and Ember Miles—are the Elemental Warriors, protectors of nature, and regular humans with special abilities to match the elements that no one else alive has dreamed of. You four were picked to be pulled together by the strings of destiny when your predecessors died in combat, six years ago.” Luna bowed her head in memory.

“How did they—” Ember began to interject, but Luna shushed her, and continued talking. “Now, this world is nearly destroyed. Temperatures are rapidly rising. Land is being cut away, and animals are dying because of it. Clean water is scarce to much too many people. And too many greenhouse gases are being emitted by automobiles and factories. Your job is to restore the Earth, and to kill the monsters who are tricking humans into doing these dastardly things.

“You all have several abilities bestowed on you. You can all control your element, but some of you have another ability. It is your job to figure those out, if you don’t know what those are.”

We looked at each other. Game on!

Chaos ensued.

We all went heck crazy with whatever Luna gave us, but somehow the forest remained untouched.

Just before Sage and I were about to blow up a tree, the world went silent. Like a record scratch. Against my will, my body turned around to face Luna, who was serenely smiling, unfazed by the shenanigans she had been surrounded by for the last half hour.

Then her face grew serious. “This is my final word to you: Under no circumstances can you ever tell anyone that you are a Warrior, or about your special abilities at all. Should you, the results would be terrible. The world would unravel.

“Just know that being an Elemental Warrior is not something to brag about to your friends at school. Now good night, Elemental Warriors…”

Luna snapped her fingers, and the world faded away into my bedroom.


	6. Coral

The next morning in homeroom, we texted each other, our phones hidden under our table.

Sage: **Idk about you, but I had a crazy dream about you guys last night**

Sky: **same**

 **dreams come true?** 😛

Coral: **involving a weird lady who is literally black and ember committing arson…?**

Sage: **Unfortunately, yes…**

Coral: **then it’s real…**

Ember: **would explain a lot**

Sage: **YES.**

**There was this thing that happened at Target the other day—**

Sky: **I heard**

**the lady never even mentioned Paul, and apparently, he did all these weird telepathy tricks**

Coral: **i’ll talk to him now—**

Ember: **seriously?**

I walked over to Paul and peeked over his shoulder. He was on his phone too, texting his buddies something about Sage and a shield. I sucked in a breath and walked back to my seat.

Ember: **WHAT THE FRICK DUDE**

Coral: **what was i supposed to say to him?!**

Sage: **I got this—**

She walked over to Paul like I did. For a few minutes she hovered next to him, then he looked at her. Sage said something to Paul, and he frowned and snapped back at her. Then Sage yelled a bunch of stuff that sounded like:

“I ONLY ASKED YOU IF ANYTHING WEIRD HAPPENED TO YOU LAST NIGHT! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO FRICKIN’ SECRETIVE? YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS WRONG, WHY WON’T YOU GIVE ME THE REST OF THE ANSWERS?!”

Paul said something else, and Sage yelled, “HEARING YOU SAY THAT MAKES ME THINK YOU’RE CONSPIRATING AGAINST US!” Then her eyes grew wide, realizing what she had just said, and then Sage covered her mouth and speed walked away.

Sky: **whoa**

Sage: **My throat is dry…**

**When I asked him if anything weird had happened last night, he said “Why do you need to know?” and got all secretive.**

Coral: **and then you started yelling at him.**

Sage: **Well… yes**

**And after that, he said that if he hadn’t promised not to tell anyone, he would tell me**

Ember: **he seemed apologetic**

Sage: **Shut up**

**But anyway, he seems to be the only other person who can see through ‘the mist’.**

Sky: **what is…**

**oh yeah, like from Percy Jackson**

Ember: **but what the heck is happening with paul?**

Coral: **luna knows all, idiot.**

Ember: **i cannot WAIT till tonight**

So that night, I asked Luna about Paul. Luna frowned. “Yes, I heard what happened today. I am not sure you’re ready to know, because of what happened between their predecessors and you.”

“But if we get into more fights with Paul and his friends-“ Sage shouted.

“Yes, I know,” Luna continued. “If things continue to get tense between you-“

“When they do,” Ember corrected.

“-we will explain it a month from tomorrow,” Luna finished. We glanced at each other. Was a month a short enough time to keep people from getting killed?


	7. Sage

Why does this part of the book have to fall on me??? Let’s get started, if this is seriously going to happen.

The day after Luna got all mysterious, we decided to tell Paul about what she said- leaving out the part about Luna existing, of course. We still didn’t trust him.

Actually, it was more like we said, “Hey, if we get into another fight, try not to kill anyone, ‘cause if you don’t, we’ll have this all explained by Sunday.” Sky was the only one brave enough to tell Paul that, and just barely then.

Paul frowned and said, “Weird. That’s exactly what In- I mean, someone else told me. I wonder if they’re like in sync or something. He shrugged. “I mean, you think I know everything about this thing. But really, we all only know half of the story.”

“Wise words coming from a mind-reader,” Ember whispered. She could definitely start a verbal fire too, if she wanted.

One of Paul’s friends—Ethan, I think—turned around and glared at Ember. “What did you say?” he growled. Ember was silent. One smart thing to do for once.

_< I hope Ember won’t read this book when it’s done.>_

Relax Sky, she’s used to it. Anyway, Ethan said, “Oh, I heard what you said. I’m just wondering how exactly you knew.”

Paul whispered something in Ethan’s ear. “Oh right, that,” Ethan rolled his eyes. Then Paul whispered something else. Ethan murmured, “This isn’t tensions rising, Paul. It’s just a misunderstanding. Too late? How can you read his mind from here? Oh, great. It’s only been two days.”

We all looked at each other and shrugged. Sunday was going to be very abnormal. 

Okay, now Sky’s asking for a chapter break because Ember wants to add something that happened before that Sunday in. I didn’t actually get the weirdest chapter in the book! WOOHOO!

Sorry, Sky. But that means my chapter is going to be a lot shorter than my other ones, so WOOHOO! My throat won’t be dry!


	8. Ember

Insert some weird jingle here, this is a quick sponsored announcement, the sponsor in question being me. This announcement that is… uh… very important is that… we will probably be discovered before Sky finishes this book!

 _< Seriously? _This _is why you stopped Sage’s chapter? >_

Yes. Seriously. It all started the day before that momentous Sunday (A.K.A. Saturday). My sister Ivy has mercilessly teased me since eternity, and she hit a point that day.

“You’re looking different today,” she said that Saturday. It was true. I’d been tired all week since I started middle school, courtesy of running back and forth to my locker and my classes. “I wonder why,” Ivy continued. “Maybe it’s because you’re in LOVE with a new BOYFRIEND.” She whispered those sentences, but it sounded like she was yelling. 

“Or maybe your friends are in a FIGHT,” she said, leaning closer to me. “Or maybe you’re part of a secret SUPERHERO organization where everyone has superpowers.”

I was dumbstruck. How could she know? I froze up. My eyes grew wide. But that only lasted a second. “Why the heck would that happen?” I laughed. I hoped she couldn’t tell that laugh was completely fake. Ivy shrugged. “I don’t know. I ran out of things to ask. But I did notice you freezing up…”

Here comes the apocalypse. _Oh no,_ I thought. Ivy continued, “I think this means that you thought I said something else. Maybe you have a GIRLFRIEND… or four…” I tackled her.

So yeah, that’s basically it. I’m sure Ivy will figure it out soon. She’s close to Sky’s sister Ash (it’s Ashlynn, but she hates that name and will kick us if we call her that), who for some reason knows EVERYTHING about Sky. (You may be imagining Ash with spiky black hair, but that’s completely wrong. She has _really_ long hair that’s black with turquoise tips.) And before you edit me out of the book, Sky, it just means that Ash’s nosy.

So that ends our sponsored announcement, Elemental Warriors! Stay Sage… I mean safe! Insert some weird jingle here.


	9. Sky

Great. Because of Ember, now _I’m_ getting the weirdest chapter in the book. Well, here I go…

Thursday in September. We were in the forest sitting down on tree stumps (except Sage, who had figured out how to turn hers into a small but sturdy oak tree), like all the other nights since the first day of school. Only this time, Luna wasn’t alone. She was joined by a woman and a man about her height. The woman was hard to look at, because she literally glowed. Really brightly. She wore a lot of yellow, and was probably the personification of day? (versus Luna, the night, I guess) The man was harder to describe. He had purple skin—and not that stupid magenta-y purple people could mistake for pink, it was _dark_ purple. He was wearing one of those hats from Aladdin, like a round grad cap, even with the tassel thing on the top. It had crazy, colorful zigzag patterns in bright pink, blue, and purple. 

“Hello,” the woman in yellow said. “I am Sola, the day queen. I realize you have never met me before, even though you started on Tuesday.”

“Well, you never came to this place. You never even mentioned meeting the Warriors,” Luna reminded her.

“It only would have been polite if you had asked me,” Sola explained.

“Well, you were always asleep when I came to your palace to ask you!” Luna countered.

“Hey, break it up,” the purple guy said, coming between the two women. “I don’t think this would turn out good if you kept going.” Luna rolled her eyes. “Show-off,” she muttered.

“Sorry about that,” the man said to us. “We don’t always get along well. I’m Intu, Luna and Sola’s younger brother.”

“ _Much_ younger,” Sola added. We gaped at them. So that meant… they were all siblings? They looked nothing alike. “Yes,” Luna said, seemingly reading our minds. “We are the Sky Siblings. I am the moon. Sola is the sun. And Intu… is dusk and dawn.” Sola snickered. I guess Intu had to be something to make them the Sky Siblings, but he did _not_ look like either dusk or dawn.

“A lot of people think Luna and I are twins, but Luna is much younger—” Sola started, but Luna interrupted, “Look, the Guardians are finally here!” I saw four… things appearing out of some portal in the sky and falling down to the earth with sonic speed. There was a huge _oomph_ , and I winced. There was no way they couldn’t have gotten injured.

“Well, I hope they’re okay,” Ember said, her eyes wide with fear. “They’ll be fine,” Intu assured her. “I’m sure Jake will heal them.” We raised our eyebrows. It had definitely sounded like bones had been broken. “Heal broken bones? Ohh… that must be one of his abilities.”

Sola and Luna were asking the same question. “You’re saying you think he can heal _broken bones_ after a month of practices?” Sola asked, raising an eyebrow. Intu frowned. “They’re progressing a lot quicker than I anticipated. Maybe it’s because they might be the ones that—”

“Shh,” Luna told him. “They’re not ready to know yet.”

Upon that sentence, four boys appeared in the (now much larger) clearing. I recognized most of them. Paul was in that group. So was his angry friend Ethan, and a boy I recognized from my fourth grade class… Allen, I think his name was. I didn’t know the last kid’s name, but I recognized his face from homeroom and science. Then I remembered that Intu had mentioned someone called Jake. _That must be him,_ I thought. He looked exhausted.

“Hi guys, what did we…?” Paul began as they sat down. “Whoa. This is huge.” He noticed us. “See Ethan, it _is_ tensions rising. I told you!” Ethan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s what _Intu_ thinks. It might not actually be ‘tensions rising’.” He made air quotes around the last two words.

Sola interrupted their bickering by introducing herself and Luna to the boys. “Now, I know that things have been very tense between your two groups of children. So I want you two to be able to stop keeping secrets. Elemental Warriors, these are the four Natural Guardians. They each have very unique magical powers: of telepathy, healing, teleportation, and time travel. Mind, body, space, and time.”

Why did they have to overpower the pranksteriest one of the bunch with _time travel?_

“Anyway,” Sola continued. She introduced us Warriors and our elements. “Now, I want you to work together in your partnerships. I’m sure you could find out some way to combine your talents.” Most of us were extremely confused. Partnerships? Who was our partner? We realized that they were sitting right next to someone else. For me, that person was Allen. I mentally groaned.

We looked at each other awkwardly. Finally, Allen zapped away, only to appear a few seconds later. I heard himself mutter “Crap” to himself. Must have been a nervous habit or something.

We did absolutely nothing for the rest of the night.


	10. Coral

The day after the whole Warriors-meet-Guardians thing, the Sky Siblings had a surprise for us. Mind you, it wasn’t a very fun surprise, but still pretty cool.

At practice that night, Sola announced, “Today two of you are going to be going on your first quest. Quests are missions to defeat monsters. Some are easy and some are harder, but they always have rewards.

“You will always earn something from completing a quest successfully. The first quest will have the reward of shapeshifting, the second of a strong bond to another ability, the third of your choice.”

Luna coughed. Sola said, “Yes, enough about the rewards. Usually a month or so after you would become Warriors and Guardians, you would endure your first quest, but you are progressing quickly. The partnership that will defeat the monster that is on the loose right now is…”

I could feel the tension in the air. I was almost sure the partnership would be Sage and Paul. They had impressed Sola with whatever the heck they had done last night.

“…Coral and Ethan!” Sola announced.

Wait, what? Last night had basically us staring at each other and talking until we wandered off to find something better to do. Ethan looked shell-shocked too.

Luna smiled. “This should not be too shocking to you. We are unable to determine the special ability—or perhaps abilities—of the monster, only that he is causing havoc around… oh, what do you humans call it?”

“Power & Light,” Intu volunteered.

“Ah, yes, that,” Luna continued. “Your versatility in your partnership makes you the most likely to defeat the monster in the Kansas City Power and Light district.” I frowned. I wasn’t a huge fan of the city, and the bright neon lights in that part of town only made it worse. 

“Wait,” Ethan said. “Surely the other people will notice us fighting a monster and teleporting all over the place...?”

Intu replied, “Well, haven’t you noticed that no one besides you notices all the weird things going on? Don’t you remember the first day…?”

Ethan and I said at the exact same time, “The teacher thought it was a Gatorade bottle…”

“I call it the Veil,” Sky volunteered. 

Intu smiled. “Yes, exactly. Now, Ethan, I want you to teleport to somewhere around that Price Chopper in the Power and Light District. You will find the monster in that Price Chopper, probably in aisle nine.” Ethan nodded, grabbed my hand, and the world faded into the city.

We appeared on a sidewalk, facing a brightly lit sign reading COSENTINO’S PRICE CHOPPER. I was breathless. “So this is what teleporting is like,” I said in awe. I sucked in a breath, and we walked straight towards the automatic sliding doors… and straight into them. They must have been locked.

Ethan rubbed his forehead. A goose egg was appearing out of nowhere. “Okay, that definitely did not work,” he grumbled. “We can just teleport through them,” I suggested. “I dunno…” Ethan mumbled. “I need to save my energy…” 

His eyes widened. Something was behind me. I turned around, and a man was sneering down at us. “Frick. He’s a teleporter,” Ethan whispered. “Great,” I whispered back. “Yes, I am,” the man said, hearing our quiet conversation. “And I am going to take you far from home,” he promised.

Our eyes widened. He grabbed us, and the world flashed before our eyes. We were in Paris. London. Somewhere really cold. And the monster finally let go of us on some paved trail. A giant deep blue lake was right next to us. It was pretty cold, even though it was only early fall. This made no sense until I realized where we were.

“Crater Lake,” I said. Ethan was confused. “What?” he asked, a quizzical look on his face. 

“We’re right next to Crater Lake. That’s what that is.” I pointed to the blue water next to us. That’s when I noticed the monster, running towards us as fast as possible, maybe a hundred yards away. “I have a plan,” I whispered to Ethan. I didn’t tell him what it was, because my ‘plan’ was more like a stupid motion. All I told him was, “Don’t follow me. Teleport back without me.” He nodded and shimmered away, hopefully going back to the forest.

I eyed the man running towards me. “You wanna get me?” I yelled. “Come and get me!”

Then I dived into the lake like the year-round swimmer I was.

Yeah, this is why I called it a stupid motion. I thought I was going to drown. Instead, I noticed that there was some sort of air bubble around me, but I could still swim. I swam down further, and saw the monster dive in after me in an explosion of bubbles. He was obviously having a hard time swimming down to catch me. He looked like he was running out of air quickly. I looked away before the depressing stuff happened, and kept swimming to the bottom. _Coral_ , you may be thinking, _why would you do something stupid like that?_ Well, I can sense stuff in water, and I sensed something that was pretty powerful. There was no other explanation.

Sure enough, when I got to the bottom (it took a long time—don’t ask), there was a set of elevator doors. There was a pair of up-down buttons floating next to it. _Weird,_ I thought. Not knowing what else to do, I pressed the down button. Waited. Waited some more. Finally, the doors opened, and I walked into the (dry!) elevator.

After a lot of testing which button went where, I finally decided to press button 4. I felt the (unfortunately familiar) sensation of being squished as I went up. I arrived a few steps away from the clearing.

After I recounted my experience, Luna said, “Well done, Coral. While you were talking, I granted you your first extension, the shapeshifting form. I think you won’t have much trouble finding it.”

At first I was confused. Then I just squeezed my eyes shut and thought to myself, _Okay, just shapeshift into… whatever you can shapeshift into now._ I opened them and looked down.

_Flip._


	11. Sage

Coral was an orca.

On land.

Yikes.

There was a lot of flopping and screaming, until Ethan got his brain back and snapped his fingers, teleporting Coral hopefully somewhere healthier for a water animal. 

A few minutes later, Coral walked back, dry as a British biscuit (which I mean to say, not a drop of water on her).

“What the heck?” She asked Luna.

Luna replied calmly, “I think you’ll find this form quite… _useful_ when you get the hang of it.”

From the way she said that, I think she was probably going to say _helpfully annoying_. Or _distracting._

Ethan called to Coral, “Hey, come down so I can show you my thing!” 

“It’s pretty impressive,” Allen noted. 

“Let me show you my shapeshifting form.” Ethan was wearing a smirk so wide, even though I already knew that his form was just as lame. Coral got the idea. She sighed and rolled her eyes but moved closer to him. Ethan scrunched his eyelids together, took a deep breath, and…

Nothing happened to him. Ethan opened his eyes and looked down. He squawked, “What the heck?” and jumped back. I heard Paul snicker and Allen say, “Smooth, dude.” Just then Luna stepped into the clearing. I hadn’t noticed she was gone before, though I did remember hearing some strange noises from the direction she came from. She looked tired, but nonetheless her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates (actually, her eyes were already that big. Maybe more like dinner tables) when she noticed Ethan panicking. Luna rushed over to him.

“What happened?” she asked him like he was a three-year-old who had scraped his knee. Ethan frowned. “For some reason I couldn’t shapeshift.” Luna’s eyes grew even wider. She walked over to where Intu was standing. They quietly talked for a minute. Luna nodded. Intu told us, “We’ll have this problem solved soon,” and the duo walked out of the clearing together, leaving the Warriors and Guardians with no one but Sola.

We were in awkward silence for a few minutes, and then Sola said, “Well, it appears we have nothing else to do. So let’s go into partner work…” We grinned gratefully. It was nice to do _something_ instead of just waiting around…


	12. Ember

Autumn came. The trees that had only a few weeks ago been as lush as a jungle were suddenly flaming with the glow of my power and carpeting the ground with their fire-orange leaves.

I’m doing a _great_ job with the poetic-ness, aren’t I?

_< Shut up. We don’t have much time before the intramural kids come in.>_

It’s your fault that you used the computer lab for interviewing space, Sky. Not mine.

_Anyway,_ it was Halloween, and we were trick-or-treating together. No, not the _entire_ gang. That would have been a mess. Only Sage, Coral, Bella, and Sky were with me.

“Hey, you got a new leg!” Coral commented. Bella patted her prosthetic. “Yep, I got it a couple weeks back. I’m not supposed to wear it _all_ the time—my doctor was saying a bunch of crap about the machine and tiring me out.” I grinned. Bella was born without part of her leg—there was barely anything from the knee down—and she’d been waiting her whole life basically to get out of her wheelchair (as turquoise as it is, it was still very uncomfortable).

“Oh look, there’s Addison and Ava,” Coral noted. Sky, wearing a cat costume, blushed. Addison was one of her latest crushes. Addison was wearing a ghost costume—

_< I realize how ironic that is now.>_

—the kind that said, _I’m only here because Ava made me come_. Ava herself was a VSCO girl, the latest TikTok trend at the time. 

“The hairspray’s wearing off,” Sky told Sage, who had dressed up as Bellatrix Lestrange, the creepy lady from Harry Potter with the crazy hair. Sky waved her hand back and forth, and wind ran over Sage’s hair until it was back to its unruly, curly chaos. Bella stared at it, but we didn’t notice. She probably saw Sky messing up Sage’s hair or something. Addison stared at the event too, looking disappointed.

It was getting too hard to act normal around non-Warriors. But at least we tried our best.

“Dude, what was that?!” Bella asked as we started walking toward a house. “It’s like the wind was messing up Sage’s hair on purpose or something.”

Sky froze.

“I think you saw that at a weird angle,” Coral told her—the only clear-headed one at the time. “Sky’s not invisible or anything.”

“I guess…” Bella frowned, like her mind was switching between seeing the wind and seeing Sky.

That day was really confusing. Still, we didn’t need Paul to know that everyone was thinking the same thought: _Something is definitely wrong._


	13. Sky

It was maybe November or December when we got our next quest. But this time, it was a _lot_ different.

When we arrived at training one evening, Luna and Intu weren’t there, but Sola was. She told us, “Luna and Intu are unavailable tonight. However, there is a monster on the loose today, and I want one of you to stop it.” We glanced at each other. Weren’t we only supposed to go in partners…?

“The monster goes by Figuranado, and its true form is unknown. It can shapeshift into anything it wants to, but some forms can leave him powerless and unable to transform back once he uses it. He is not very critical, and will do anything to defeat you. The person I have chosen for this quest’s job is to outsmart Figuranado into changing into said forms so that he is forever powerless,” Sola continued. So we weren’t killing him. Well, were we? I think we could. If we were told otherwise, I really hoped Ember wasn’t picked for the quest. Man, this was confusing.

Sola caught me off my train of thought, saying, “Sky will go on the quest by herself.” Hearing my name, I glanced back at her, surprised when the sentence was completed. 

“She must head north from here,” Sola continued. “Once she is done, she will use the elevator to come back and head south.”

“But how do I know which way is-“A broken-looking compass appeared in my hand. Okay… “See you later,” I told everyone as I headed north, according to the old compass.

I kept heading north, maneuvering around the occasional tree blocking my path. At some point I ran straight into a piece of metal when I wasn’t looking.

I pressed a hand to my forehead. There was going to be a goose egg there. I backed up and looked at what I had bumped into. It was a set of elevator doors, not unlike the one Coral described when recounting her quest. Where had the buttons been…? I glanced around and saw the arrows floating a few inches from said doors. 

I muttered some things in Spanish that the elevator door’s mom would not appreciate and pressed the UP button.

After a little playing around (and meeting a very confused five-year-old who mentioned having a level ate), I came to a level that looked like the 20th level of an 18th century apartment building. A gut feeling told me this was the place, because logic. I knocked on the door hastily, just in case someone besides Figuranado was living here. No answer.

I wiggled the doorknob, but it was locked tight, surprisingly. Finally, I sighed and slammed my shoulder into the center of the door, which splintered into bits. I crashed to the ground from the force.

I may have blacked out. It wasn’t very wise of me to do that.

When I woke up, there was a really ugly man hovering (not like I hover, like a metaphorical hover. God, this is confusing even me now) above me, looking expectantly at me. I sat up groggily. I was in a small room, the walls and floor splattered with blood and covered in bits of wood, the latter probably from the door. I didn’t want to know what the blood was from. Then I noticed two girls sitting in a corner, tied to chairs that were tied together. When I saw their faces, my stomach tightened.

Ava and Addison. What were _they_ doing here?! I wouldn’t put it past them to side with this monster.

Those two had cost us two years of misery; all of fourth and fifth grade. Bullying, excluding us, taking Coral and trying to make her hate us in exchange for popularity; the whole package.

Well, actually, Ava had done most of the dirty work. Addison was just her minion.

Ava whimpered. I noticed she had a gag on. Maybe she was worried that I was going to destroy her (I was glaring at her). Or she was upset that she couldn’t check her text messages in this state. Probably the latter.

I stood up and started a small whirlwind circling around me. It drained a considerable amount of energy from me, but it seemed to intimidate the man. “You’re going to regret this,” he growled as he backed away.

I forced a bout of wind at him like a softball pitcher. The man’s head blew back and hit the wooden wall. He had a concussion at least, but there was no time to waste. I was about to dash out of the room, but suddenly I felt the twin lasers of eyes baring into my back.

I turned around, and there they were, staring at me with helpless eyes. Ava and Addison seemed to be silently pleading with me, and eventually I had enough heart to roll my eyes and say, “Fine. You’re coming with me. Don’t expect this to be a limo ride, though.”

And a limo ride it was not. It took at least five minutes for me to drag them ten feet to the elevator. I untied their ropes while waiting for the elevator to get to level 4, and by the time it was on level 7, they were standing next to me and ungagged.

Addison brushed herself off and cursed. “What was that guy doing?! He was supposed to help us!” she mumbled. Ava was tapping away at her phone, then she frowned and threw it to the floor. “No wi-fi?!” She shouted. I sent an unimpressed look at her. _Duh._

Addison frowned at me. “What are _you_ doing here?” she asked me.

“I’m saving you,” I snapped. “I have to kill that idiot that kidnapped you, or else he’s going to do more damage than take and kill a couple of kids that don’t even want to help this world.”

Ava and Addison were taken aback. “What the—” Ava murmured.

I made a little tornado in the palm of my hand. “Okay, look, I can do this, and—”

I couldn’t finish my retort. Addison thumped to the floor, knocked out. By what, I couldn’t tell.

But something was definitely wrong.


	14. Addison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> enjoy your first non-warrior pov chapter idiots

When Sky conjured up that tiny tornado, I passed out. I had already been drugged and I was really sleepy.

And the shock did not help one bit.

Seeing that tornado conjured up too many memories of everything.

Why I was here.

What I could do.

Who my mother was.

The rush was so strong, I passed out.

Before I could hear myself thump to the ground, I was dreaming.

_Last week, in the kitchen. Dad was off somewhere, and I didn’t have a clue where. We were off on winter break, which made it even stranger; why was my father gone on New Years’ Eve, of all days? It made no sense._

_When I was off stewing and stress eating about where he could be, my mom walked into the room. Something was off about her, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. Was she paler than usual? Maybe she was—_

_“I feel something powerful in you,” she whispered. What was she talking about? “Addison, I need to show you something,” Mom told me. I was suspicious, but I let her pull me to my room._

_Winds swirled around the room and gathered into a tiny tornado in my mom’s palm. I jumped back. Tornadoes were dangerous! And why—_

_“I know what you’re thinking,” Mom told me. “And no, I’m creating this. I was given this power when I was your age, and you may have received some part of it.”_

_“What about Dad?” I asked. Mom snorted. “He doesn’t have a clue that I was once a Warrior. But that’s not the point; you need to focus on yourself.”_

_Well,_ that _seemed selfish. But I didn’t argue. Instead, I asked, “How can I use… whatever you’re telling me about?”_

_Mom sighed. “I was going to try that in a couple of hours, but fine. It doesn’t make much of a difference. All you have to do is focus on the tingle in your bones, the blood coursing through your veins. The power might emerge.”_

_I did as she asked. It took ten minutes, but after a while, there was a flash of blinding energy and-_

_“Hmm, interesting,” my mom said as she surveyed me. Why was everything suddenly slightly bigger? “I thought maybe invisibility or telekinesis, but shapeshifting? That’s unexpected.” Shapeshifting? Was I actually-_

_I looked down at my body. Instead of pants and sneakers, I found snow-white fur with gray spots and paws._

_Darn! I had the body of… something. Something furry. Whatever it was, it wasn’t me._

_“I did use my shapeshifting forms a lot-especially my leopard form. Maybe you can shapeshift into something else?” Mom wondered._

_Well, how was I supposed to do that?! Hmmm…_

_I focused on one thought I was having:_ Turn me into a lion.

_I’m not sure why I picked lions. I like them._

_Well, anyways, another flash appeared, and I was staring at the body of a lioness. Awesome!_

_I tried a couple of other kinds of cats (_ puma, lynx, tabby) _when I decided it was time to do something else. Maybe a reptile._ Okay, _I thought._ Now turn me into a lizard.

_Nothing happened._

_“You tried something else, didn’t you,” Mom said as I shifted into human form and nodded. “Then that must be the extent of your ability. I bet you can only turn into… cats. Not particularly fierce, but I bet you could do something with the ability._

_“I need you to go to an old friend of mine. Well, not really a friend, but an acquaintance. He’s very skilled at shapeshifting, and he can teach you how to use your power. You can find him with directions, but I haven’t prepared those- I expected you to have a power other than what you apparently have. I’ll have them in a few days, but you need to sit tight from now on. And practice- just don’t let your power take over you.”_

_I gave her a thumbs up. That was a lot of information to get in five minutes, but I wasn’t complaining. Having a magical power given to you by your mom was pretty cool. “What’s this guy’s name?” I asked. “Figuranado,” Mom told me. I nodded, but inside I was wondering who the heck had a name like that. His parents must have been jerks._

_“He’s working with me on… a project.” Mom told me. “You’re part of it, but you don’t need to know how right now. Just give him this note from me”-she handed me a Post-it with something on it- “and tell him that Laura sent you. You might want to bring someone you trust with you, but some people_ he _won’t trust. Be careful.”_

_She walked out of my room right then and there, like my life hadn’t just changed forever._

“ _Dar una buena acogida_ , Sleeping Beauty,” Sky said as I sat up with a jolt.

“I need to go back,” I told her, remembering why I was in this elevator. I needed to get back to Figuranado.

But how…

Oh. Duh.

_A kitten. Any kitten except a hairless one. (Oh god ew please not that.)_

I crawled out a crack in the elevator. Sky yelled something, but what she said was inaudible to my small Siamese ears.

I needed to get out, fast.


	15. Coral

“It was a bust,” Sky told us as she sat down at the lunch table.

“What do you mean, ‘a bust’?!” Ember asked. “Did you not kill the guy?!”

“Worse than that,” Sky admitted. She told us about Addison and the evil murder kitten.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Paul said. “Are you saying that _Addison McCaffee_ can shapeshift?”

“She’s saying that Addison was there and then the kitten was,” I deadpanned. “No, she’s saying Addison can shapeshift, idiot.” Honestly, the rude comments were just to hold back my stomach turning from Paul talking—

_< Aha! I knew it!>_

( _Shut up, Sky, are all lesbians this excited about hetero relationships?_ ) –and I was sort of distracted already by looking for Addison. It took a little while, since she wasn’t in her usual spot right next to Ava at their table. Instead, she was sitting in a corner of that table, not really engaging in conversation or even looking at people.

“There she is,” Ethan said, saying it before I could. “We should go over there to talk to her.”

“Yeah, I vote for Sky,” Ember said, grinning at her. Sky blushed furiously, even through her brown-tinted skin. “I dunno… she… uh…” Sky stammered.

This part is _fun_ , isn’t it, Sky?

_< Alright, that’s it—>_

And see, this next part is even more fun!

_< Fine. I don’t want Sage talking about whatever this part is anyway.>_

Anyway, arguing ensued, since Sky had the crushies, a lot of people barely knew Addison, and the rest hated her (*cough*EMBER*cough*). Eventually, we decided on Sage (who barely hates anyone) and Sky (who, despite the crushies, _had_ rescued her).

Chaos ensued. Sky mumbled something, and Addison whipped around, glaring and yelling something about Sky doing nothing right. Sky mumbled something else, and Addison screamed, “Don’t you see?! He was supposed to help me, and _you_ ruined it! I did exactly what my mom told me!!!” A bright flash appeared, and suddenly a tiger was standing where Addison had just been, with the same bright green eyes as Addison. It growled, and everyone scrambled back. “Looks like Addy doesn’t just do the evil murder kitten,” I whispered.

“I don’t want to hurt you!” Sky cried at the tiger, who was now cornering her. “I just want you to be safe! You’re putting your own self in danger.”

Something must have happened in Addison, because she backed up and, after a long pause, there was a flash and she stood there in human form.

“Please,” Sky whispered. “Let me help you.”

Addison stood there, her eyes solemn. Then she backed up again, the tiger flashing back for a fraction of a second.

“You can’t undo what happened, or what I am. The only way for me to figure out how _I_ can undo that is for you to leave me alone.”

A tear glistened in Addison’s eye as she slowly walked away towards another day of loneliness.


	16. Ember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> haha were going out of order with the povs now
> 
> isn't it just SO coincidental that the first time it went out of order addison had just been the star of a chapter  
> and now its going out of order with ember joining addison
> 
> maybe im throwing you off  
> maybe im not  
> you decide fans

**You need to help me solve this without Sky,** Addison texted me in science after lunch.

I gave her a quizzical look and texted her back,

Ember: **i have 2 questions:**

**HOW DID U GET MY NUMBER**

Addison: **Coral gave it to me for some reason a while back. Idk**

Ember: **and why should i agrre to this**

***agree**

Addison: **For one, we both want to keep Sky out of danger.**

I blushed and looked at my shoes.

Ember: **Shut up**

Addison: **And I’ll tell you everything I know about how to stop the bad guys.**

Ember: **you don’t know anything about who we’re fighting**

**your just some cat who happened to be taken by one of them**

Addison: **If you really think I happened to be randomly kidnapped, then you’re as dull as they say you are.**

She sent a playful smirk at me with the message, but that didn’t stop the words from sinking in.

Ember: **ill help u, but are u actually a cat**

Addison: **Usually depends on when you ask it** 🙂

**But I think the fact that I didn’t know my power until a couple days ago answers the question for you.**

I stared at the smiley face for so long that the screen blurred.

I didn’t think we would be at _that_ point anytime soon. It only proved my point even more that Addison was insane. Still, I typed back, **ok lets do this!**

“That’s a lot to look through,” I noted as Addison showed me her notebook full of clues to what her mom could be planning. “Well, the more specific, the better,” Addison said as she flipped to the ‘theories about alliances’ page that was right before the ‘how could we break this alliance’ page.

“Can you remind me what happened again?” I asked her. It was hard to remember a lot of the details.

“My mom made me discover my power out of the blue while Dad was gone on frickin’ New Year’s Day and told me to go to Figuranado with a partner (but not to pick the wrong one) and also let it slip that they’re working on a project together. Then, the next day, I went with Ava to the location and F wouldn’t trust me when I showed him the note and then Sky rescued us and I passed out and escaped because I was panicking and then…” she panted, realizing she’d forgotten to breathe. “Don’t try to finish that sentence,” I warned her.

“Got it,” she said, coughing. “The whole gist of it is: My mom’s planning something weird with Figuranado that probably involves my dad.”

“Don’t forget your questionable choices in accompaniments on dangerous quests,” I added, grinning. She sent a death glare at me while correcting, “Actually, I didn’t know it would be dangerous, idiot.”

“ _Actually,_ your mom probably told you it would be dangerous before you went,” I retorted, snapping in her face.

My hand caught fire. Addison screamed. I yelled, “Sorry, I keep forgetting that happens when I snap!” as I tried to snuff the flame out. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually I could sit down without scorching the chair (I swore it was taking me longer and longer those days).

Addison eyed me warily. “Maybe you should tell me why that happened before we do anything else,” she suggested.

I nodded, quickly filling her in on the whole Elemental Warriors thing. “We should figure out how to fix whatever mistake you made now, since that’s why Sky had to come,” I suggested.

“Good idea,” Addison agreed. “But I’ve been at your house for two hours. Don’t you have soccer practice today?”

I nodded, wondering how she knew. Then I noticed the week’s calendar on the chalkboard behind me. _Dang, she is observant._

“Yeah,” I admitted. “How far away is your house?”

“Only a few blocks. Be safe.” Addison grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I was trying to comprehend Addison’s last sentence so hard that I barely noticed her gesture. Addison was out the door by the time I could respond, and then I noticed she left something on my desk.

I opened the notebook to a random page, my mouth falling slightly ajar at what it said.

_What do the Sky Siblings want from us?_


	17. Sage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hahahahahaha we have a mystery character now
> 
> they're actually a real bean

“What’s going on?” Paul asked Ember while we were in homeroom.

“Nothing,” Ember automatically told him, with no emotion in her voice.

“That’s not true,” I argued. It wasn’t. Ember hadn’t been cracking any jokes or really even talking at all. “I’m fine,” Ember insisted, revealing another weak nerve. “You’re trying to hide something,” I realized.

“I can find out if you want,” Paul volunteered. Ember glared at him, obviously now realizing that _he actually could_. I immediately admired him saying that and facing the wrath of the pyrokinetic. “Trust the telepath,” Paul told her. I frowned, remembering that from a book I’d read recently. Paul needed to stop treating this _extremely_ real situation like a story.

“Don’t find out,” Ember warned. “It’s not safe—and I’m not talking about the easy crap Luna gave the waterporter duo. I’m talking about putting someone’s life in danger, someone who can barely control their power.” My eyes widened at the word ‘their’. Could it really be… no. No way it could. We had enough people with these abilities, and I didn’t want that person to get any, coming back to haunt me.

“I don’t think _I’ll_ be able to handle much, even,” Ember confessed. “I can barely control my powers, too, and they only grow. I don’t trust the Sibs for not giving me something tamable. Maybe we were born to have this much power. Maybe I’m the only one. But I’m going to give the Sibs one chance to make a change in my life—and a good one.”

All of us were shocked by what she had said. That was probably the most serious thing she had said in… a long time. And the thing was… I was pretty sure that all of us felt the power slipping away. We’d just gotten a good grip on it, but it was growing too big to hold on to.

 _< Wooowww. I’ve never heard you use metaphors before. This sounds like an adult book now. And dang, you must be blushing _hard _for it to show. >_

“Addison’s given me enough already. I wish I could tell you, but it’s to keep everyone safe. It’s better to put two people in danger than nine.” Ember looked so remorseful that it took a few seconds for her words to reach my brain.

“Wait,” I said slowly. “You’ve been working on something with Addison?” Fury seeped into my vision and made it fuzzy.

_“Why did you have to tell me this?” I’m dearly concerned for my friend’s life. Of course, she-_ they- _don’t understand that._

“Sage, I—” Ember shouted. She couldn’t be doing this. She needed to stop pretending this is better than her duty.

_“This is who I am. And you can’t change that, so you need to accept it.” Their eyes are filled with sadness, much more human than the wise, robotic people you expect from people who don’t call themselves male or female._

“No!” I cut in. “You can’t just be working alone with one person. Teamwork, remember? That’s why the Warriors were frickin’ made!” A crack appeared in the ground next to me, but I didn’t care. I would die before letting her do this on her own.

 _“What will my parents say about this? What will_ your _parents say? Not everyone agrees with this crap! Not everyone expects some fifth grader to come out as nonbinary, if they care what it means before wanting to hurt you for it!” Now I’m standing up, begging them to try and stop this chain reaction._

_“Well, I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else to live!” An angry tear slips down my cheek as they walk away from me and climb over the fence. I never saw them again._

“Sage, stop!” My rage is shattered by my coughing. The thick cloud around me cleared to reveal Sky waving it away. I look around and see that she didn’t make the gas.

I looked around and see the room in shambles. The jagged ground has been slashed and pulled up like this was the badlands. The gas came from the rubble. _It was because of me_.

Someone might have been killed in this.

And it would have been my fault, not Ember’s.


	18. Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just so you know sage is aroace :)

Seeing the terrified look on Sage’s face, I assured her, “Don’t freak out. Pretty much everyone split after the earthquake started. Ethan was able to get some of the class to the other side of the building, and the rest ran for their life. They’re probably in the Starbucks across the street by now.”

Sage stood still for moments, then she started bawling. “WHY PICK ME?” she yelled. “NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF I WAS NORMAL!” I hugged her “Because you’re a good person,” I told her. “You hate no one. And you’re vegetarian.”

Sage wiped her eyes. “That doesn’t even have to do with anything. It wasn’t even funny.”

I smiled, playfully throwing some rocks at her. “Speak for yourself.”

Before Sage could retort, Ethan materialized in the corner of my eye.

“Hey,” he called. Then he noticed Sage and started yelling at her.

“Seriously?! Why did you have to do that?” Sage opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say, it didn’t come out. After a few moments, she whispered, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“What do you mean, yo—”

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Sage yelled, a fissure forming on the ground beneath her. Ethan fell silent, looking like he wished he could disappear.

“I’ve already lost another friend,” Sage told him fiercely. “I don’t want to push another away by trying to protect them.”

There was a moment of pause. Ethan’s eyes filled with shame. He gulped and nodded. “Anyway, I came here to pick you two up. The school’s been evacuated, and…” He looked around. “Yeah, it looks like all entrances are closed. So I figured you might need some… help.” He grinned.

Sage gave him the evil eye. “We could’ve gotten out ourselves, idiot.” Ethan shrank. “Oh yeah, I never thought of that…” The boy had a major crush going on, I could tell. (You would find a way to see crushes easily if you needed to see if yours was straight before telling them, too.)

I sighed and started moving pieces of the wall away with the wind. “Do you have anything else to tell us before we split for Starbucks, then?”

“Yeah, about that…” he admitted. “We haven’t seen Ember since Sage erupted.”

The rock I had been moving fell to the ground as my concentration broke. “WHAT?” Sage yelled. Ethan’s eyes widened as he said, “She could be alive! We don’t know yet.”

“Let’s go,” I said before they started pulling each other’s hair out. Ethan gave Sage the stinkeye, but finally gave in. “Alright,” he agreed, grabbing our hands and letting the rubble fade away.

“Hey,” Coral said as we walked in the doorway of the Starbucks across the street. “How’s it going?”

“As good as it can go when you just caused an earthquake,” Sage said grimly. Coral’s face fell, and there was awkward silence while I ordered. A few minutes later, I was sipping my lemon-orange bubble tea and ignoring everyone else like a pro.

Allen finally broke the silence when he said, “Why would someone ever order boba tea in an American coffee shop?”

“It’s kind of addictive. You should try it.”

More silence after that. .

“So what the heck was that, anyway?” Jake asked. I was shocked—this was like the second most words I’d ever heard him say.

Sage ignored him, focusing on her coffee milkshakey drink instead.

“Dude, that’s like your parents asking you why you had a 30-minute absence during freaking study hall,” Coral said with a sharp edge in her tone. “It’s pointless, it’s already been answered like fifteen times, and you’re never going to give the answer anyway because why bother.”

If she had been the waves gently coming towards a beach before she said that, now she was a stormy sea.

“Jeez, I was just wondering” was the plain response to that, with a slight waver to Jake’s voice. “All I remember was the ground starting to shake and then we were here, and I’m sure everyone else can say the same. I just want to know how it came to that.”

Sage looked like she’d gotten a brain freeze. Actually, she might have.

“Never mind that,” I said quickly. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“I guess we should tell the sibs?” Paul offered.

That seemed like a good start.


	19. Coral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> everyone: *super serious*
> 
> coral: may the force be with y'all

Intu was speechless when we told him what had happened.

“I knew this would happen…” he said, rubbing her temples. Of course he had. He was a literal god. 

“What would happen?” Ethan wondered.

“The curse of the fifth,” Sola murmured. “The most powerful Warrior group will be corrupted by an outside force, falling away into allegiance to an evil group one by one, except for one. One mediator to balance the sides.

“But there are only four…” she mumbled.

Luna’s eyes grew unfocused and started glowing bright red. She grew taller than the centuries-old oaks surrounding us, her complexion growing blacker than black, leaching all the faint starlight woven in her hair out of the sky.

“ _We can change that,_ ” she said in an odd tone, like three people speaking at once. Female. Male. And an odd tone that sounded like neither and both at the same time.

I scrambled back while my mind screamed a thousand different words. Sola and Intu faded away before they could see the havoc about to be wreaked on us.

I saw a pair of wide orange eyes poking out of the forest. I knew immediately whose they were when I saw the reddish color, but I was too busy getting scared the crap out of me to do anything about it.

“Who are you?” Sky demanded.

Not-Luna laughed. “ _I am the Luna she wishes she was. The Queen of the Night has risen, and you best be prepared.”_

I flashed a watersword. “You think we aren’t?”

I leaped at her, prepared to slash, but she was ready, knocking me down to the ground before I was remotely close to her. Blood shot out of my mouth on impact. I rubbed my head. “Ow…” _Heck._

“What do you want?” Sage yelled at Not-Luna. A lime green aura surrounded her for a flash. She raised her hand and it looked like she was sucking the ground through a hole. 

“GET DOWN!” she yelled at us. Me already being down, I ignored her command. I saw her unleashing a shockwave of the very earth we were upon right now. Paul failed to duck and cover fast enough and got hit by the debris all over. 

The noise in my head screeched to a stop, like a record scratch or a beat drop. It was all over now. 

Sage, with her back facing him, didn’t notice, but Ember did.

“FU—!”

“LANGUAGE, EMBER,” I intervened.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!” she shouted at Sage with her eyes flickering at lightspeed anger and nervousness, who turned around, the lime leaving her eyes.

“OH MY GOD!” she cried, running over, tears leaking from her eyes, first bright green and then fading to normal.

 _I could have stopped this,_ I thought. _If only I had been quicker. Maybe if I could have cut down the arm instead of doing nothing. Maybe I could have done something else, or made him get down before—_

All my thoughts were cut off when a noise came from my right.

“Where am I?” the voice squeaked. I recognized the pair of eyes that came with this figure too, but they weren’t the orange of Ember’s, but instead lavender and almond-shaped. And this voice wasn’t anyone’s I had heard in the forest before, not one of a Warrior. Yet.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t know it.

“Excuse me?” Bella asked. “What am I doing here? Are you all just part of a dream?”

We were all too speechless to respond.

Luna sat up, her eyes back to the deep forest green. She was back to her regular size, the stars sparkling in her hair again, although not as bright as they used to be.

We had defeated the Queen of the Night and gotten this in return.

“This is so screwed up,” I mumbled.


	20. Bella

“What the heck are you doing here?” Ember asked, her narrowed amber eyes standing out from the shadows.

“I have no fricking clue,” I told her.

“She knows,” the star lady insisted. “Just look at her hands.”

I looked down. There was nothing special about me. Just some girl who can’t walk and oh wow I can walk and why are my hands glowing.

Sky crossed her arms. “And why are we supposed to believe you’re _another_ one?”

The star lady shook her head. “This girl isn’t offspring. She was given powers to overpower that of any of her eight supposed equals— not that to be below.”

“Wait,” Coral said. “Are you saying—“

“Yes,” the star lady told her. “She is the one prophesied to transcend all other humans with her powers, the ninth one of them, to destroy them all: the Light Warrior.”

Somebody help me.

“What does that even mean?” I asked. Magical powers were completely bogus to me at the time—was this some weird science stuff like in all those superhero movies? Was I supposed to do some dramatic thing now where I shout “I WILL KILL YOU ALL” and then do an evil villain laugh or something else dumb?

“It looks like we have some explaining to do,” Coral noted drily, seeing the look on my face. “Do you want the long version or the ridiculously long version?”

“How about the nonexisting version?” I laughed. “I have to be waking up now, right?”

I pinched myself. This had to be fake, right? How else could I be walking and glowing?

“About that, Light Warrior,” the star lady said. “We need to have a private conversation.”

She waved her hand and everything faded away. I was trapped in a black void with a goddess I barely knew. I squirmed a little, but the night woman seemed to be perfectly comfortable here.

“Bellatrix,” she said to me serenely. She was really creeping me out.

“How do you know my name?” I asked her, squinting suspiciously.

“You were the fifth Warrior, one predicted in a mysterious prophecy I found written millennia ago. I can assure you you’re not dreaming right now, at least not in the normal sense.”

I frowned. “Then where are we?”

“We’re in the void, the place I make my own by imagining. You have never moved since you arrived in the forest, just your surroundings have changed to make me more comfortable.”

“The forest was fine.”

“Maybe for you,” the star woman corrected. “I merely changed it to that because it makes for a good training ground. Everything eventually gets turned in to this, however. You just can’t wrap your mind around it—or can you? The fifth Warrior was always supposed to be more versatile than the others, wasn’t she,” the night lady said thoughtfully, mostly to herself.

“Right,” I said. “Then why did you bring me here?”

The goddess nodded. “I was going to get to that.

“The fifth warrior was always going to act as a prophet, a herald to cure the night queen, Luna—me—from her curse of the demon that sometimes took over, wrecking the orderly system of the Warriors and Guardians, but also acting as a bringer of doom, unbalancing the scale and causing many to be corrupted by outside forces. 

“This will not only bring the end of the group, but also eventually overthrow the Sky Siblings. And so one will act as a mediator. And we want you to act as that person, since death is now inevitable.”

 _Like Thanos,_ I thought to myself.

“Alright,” I said reluctantly. “But what’s the cost?”

I smirked, looking at the shocked expression on Luna’s face for a nanosecond before willing to fade away.

And that’s when I jolted awake.


	21. Coral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yes this is where the homestuck references start coming in  
> im so sorry

**Ember: do you know what bellas deal is**

**Coral: what?**

**Ember: like why did she just randomly show up in the forest**

**Coral: why were you even there?**

**i thought luna kicked you out :/**

**Ember: idek**

**probably some weird metaphorical crap relating to our amazing incredible powers or somethign**

***something**

**i really regret turning off autocorrect**

**Coral: lol**

**and don’t be sarcastic, they’re awesome. >:0**

**Ember: no they suck and you know it**

**you know what i said in that big melodramatic speech last week**

**Coral: yeah i definitely do**

**what was that about anyway?**

**Ember: dont change the subject**

**i asked if you knew what her deal is**

**Coral: stop quoting obscure webcomics**

**Ember: who me**

**Coral: >:T**

**Ember: oh whatever**

**but like why is she in the forest**

**you know addison never came to the forest**

**Coral: did you even catch what luna said?**

**Ember: uhhh**

**Coral: she’s the fifth warrior**

**i think she might be supposed to be even stronger than us?**

**but that’s near impossible so idk**

**what was that thing about wednesday though?**

**Ember: i found something weird**

**it questioned the siblings power and why they are using random humans to give them power and have them as basically their servants**

**so obviously i wanted to know**

**whats their deal**

**Coral: stop saying that! D: < **

**Ember: what its true**

**Coral: well yeah but you can use literally any other gag in that one stupid comic**

**Ember: how do you know it’s a gag anyway?**

**Coral:**

**shut up**

**Ember: >:D**

**Coral: okay but do you think luna has revoked your abilities?**

**Ember: what does that even mean**

**Coral: taken away you idiot**

**Ember: oh**

**i doubt it honestly**

**she probably thinks im still ‘redeemable’ or some other crap**

**or maybe she just cant actually do it**

**like its not within her circle of control**

**which is weird since she gave us these powers in the first place**

**Coral: heck**

**warrior physics are weird**

**Ember: yeah**


	22. Ember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> revolutionary planning
> 
> confusion intensifies
> 
> embison moments fly from all directions

I turned my phone off. Phew. Too much drama. Coral thought I was ‘betraying’ them, Ethan was angrier than usual at me, Sage turned into a ragemonster trying to protect me, and Sky was completely unreadable. Life was a mess.

What had I even started?

I thumbed through the notebook again, finally coming to the page I had been looking at for the past week.

Written in messy handwriting I thought was Addison’s was written:

What do the Sky Siblings want from us?

  * Giving us abilities they already have
  * Running errands they can do just to make us stronger
  * Prophecy of Nine—pulling innocent people in
  * they let people further destroy the world—just to save themselves
  * are they hiding th k y o e i en e n un i i d p e under our noses right in u t n?



I studied the last bullet point the longest. Someone had used whiteout on it, but not very well. I could still see about half the letters, but the rest were impossible to decipher.

It was obviously very important, and someone knew it was too powerful even to hint at.

But this—this meant something huge. I needed to find out what it was.

I entered Addison’s number in the text messages app.

**Ember: hey**

**we need to talk**

**my house. 4:00**

**Sent at 2:28**

**Addison: Oh hey!**

**Ember: hey**

**what took you so long**

**Addison: Stuff**

**Ember: :/**

**Addison: I’ll talk about it when I get to your house, alright?**

**Ember: yeah where even are you**

**it is literally**

**3:56**

**Addison: Shoot…**

**I’m on my way now :)**

**Ember: >:T**

**well okay then**

Addison arrived at my house a few minutes later. Luckily, I was home alone at the moment.

“So what do you want to talk about?” she asked me, plopping down on my bed.

“What did you write here?” I said, pointing to the bottom of the page.

She frowned. “I didn’t write any of that—that’s my mom’s handwriting. See—it’s way different from the pages I wrote,” she said, pointing to some of the pages she had written during our last session.

I looked closely. She was right.

“Weird,” I said. “How did she even get this?”

“Abilities,” Addison guessed, making jazz hands.

I laughed and made the jazz hands as well. Then my hands caught fire.

“CRAP GET A BUCKET OR SOMETHING I NEED TO DUNK MY HANDS IN SOMETHING” was my instinctual response to the situation. Addison raced to the bathroom outside my room and filled the sink up with water.

Once I had extinguished myself, we got back to business.

“Okay,” Addison said, spinning her pencil around. “So what are we supposed to do about this? Should we follow her lead?”

“Since I know you didn’t write it, I can’t trust whoever it came from, since they obviously _had_ to sneak in here just to give me a vague hint I can’t even figure out,” I realized. “I can barely trust anyone—why figure we can trust your evil mom that I haven’t even met?”

Addison tucked her pencil behind her ear. “That makes sense—but really only for you. I haven’t just met her—I’ve known her all my _life_. Even if I didn’t know her that much.”

“I guess,” I admitted. “But… hmm. I just don’t know. Maybe later, when we know more.”

“Maybe later,” Addison agreed.


	23. Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sky is triggered and channels vriska

**Sky: what.**

**the.**

**fricking.**

**heck.**

**WAS THAT!!!!!!**

**come out!**

**Read**

**I know you’re reading this. see, the little thing under my last message even says ‘read’!**

**> :0**

**Bella: what do you want!**

**Sky: what do I want?**

**I want to know why a few days ago you blew everything up!**

**Bella: oh god not this again…**

**Sky: you want to know what I’m frustrated with?**

**we already had it bad the last week before you *randomly* showed up in our spot!**

**did you know that?!**

**no, I didn’t think so!**

**you made *everything* worse last Wednesday!**

**and you don’t even know it!**

**now I don’t have to deal with eight but *nine* ridiculously overpowered sixth graders, none of which should exist and half of which hate me!!!!!!**

**Bella: listen!**

**i didnt even know what i was doing half the time!**

**i just suddenly fell asleep and fell into the forest, i dont even know how i got there or what i was doing there**

**so can you stop?????? :(**

**Sky: I mean…**

**okay first of all it’s not that easy…**

**second of all, you *couldn’t* have just randomly appeared there just because you’re our friend.**

**are you sure you had *nothing* to do with it?**

**are you *suuuuurreeeee*, Bellatrix?**

**Bella: dont call me that!**

**i dont know why i was named after a freaking harry potter villain**

**it’s a mean name and you shouldnt call me that >:(**

**Sky: …**

**I mean, fine…**

**but what were you even doing in there?**

**Bella: heck if i know!**

**luna said some weird stuff about a prophecy and light but i really have no idea o-o**

**Sky: and I’m guessing you stayed when we woke up?**

**Bella: yeah**

**she brought me into some weird void and said some stuff about mediating**

**but i called her out and left**

**Sky: you can do that??????**

**Bella: yeah cant you?**

**Sky: I dunno, I’ve never tried it really…**

**Bella: maybe its part of my abilities**

**idek**

**Sky: I guess I’ll try it tonight**

**it’s probably just a light-specific thing**

**Bella: yeah**

**Sky: like how Sage sometimes has animal communication?**

**which is weird… maybe if you connect Earth to nature or something but that’s sort of far-fetched**

**Bella: wait sage is nature?**

**Sky: no she’s Earth**

**Bella: so like…**

**youre all different elements?**

**Sky: yeah, I’m Wind, Coral is Water, Sage is Earth, Ember is fire.**

**it’s pretty straightforward if you look at all our names**

**Bella: yeah thats sort of weird**

**Sky: yeah aren’t we all**

**and you were named after a star so I guess that continues the pattern**

**but the boys got lucky, they got regular names**

**if slightly outdated**

**Bella: wait i was named after a star?**

**Sky: yeah do you think it just sprang out of J.K. R*wling’s imagination**

**Bella: idk i…**

**i guess so**

**huh**

**Sky: well**

**yeah, okay**

**I guess this mostly clears things up**

**Bella: yeah i guess**


	24. Sage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SAGE IS STILL AROACE OKAY SHE JUST USES <3 AS AFFECTIONATE FRIENDSHIP SORRY FOR CONFUSION

Sometimes I sit in my room and leave my head to be eaten by all the terrible things I’ve done.

This was one of those days.

_What was wrong with me?_

_The days I wanted to do the ‘uncool’ things._

_Ava laughing at me, calling me terrible names, while others didn’t even bother to help me._

_Being the last to be picked, or not being picked at all._

_Even Luna hasn’t chosen me yet, and she’s the blackest of them all! They all think I’m useless._

_And when I’m not, I’m destructive._

_I hurt Paul. Who knows if he’s back from the hospital even a week later?_

_I hurt them._

_I was only trying to protect them, and I hurt them instead._

_Ember’s hurt face when my eyes filled with anger._

_T—their solemn eyes as they climbed away, never to be found._

_They left not because of their parents, but because of_ me. I’m _the monster, not anyone else._

_I’m_

_The_

_MONSTER._

_I can’t be trusted._

_How can they, when all I do is hurt people—_

My phone buzzed, preventing me from venting for the rest of my life. 

Crap.

**Paul: Hi :)**

**Sage: …**

**Paul: I don’t blame you**

**It’s my fault**

**Sage: Where even are you?**

**Paul: Still in the hospital**

**I just got a concussion and a bunch of big cuts from the debris**

**The doctors think it was from the earthquake on Wednesday even though I came to the hospital the morning after lol**

**Sage: Oh wow**

**lol**

**I guess?**

**Paul: Yeah :/**

**Well**

**That’s really all there is to say on the matter**

**Sage: WHY IS EVERYONE QUOTING THAT STUPID COMIC??????**

**Paul: What comic?**

**Sage: Oh, nevermind**

**The point is…**

**I’m so sorry :(**

**Paul: It’s fine**

**Like I said**

**It was mostly my fault**

**Sage: That’s not true!**

**But I give up because you keep insisting otherwise**

**Paul: Ooo big words**

**Sage: Shut up**

**But yeah…**

**bye <3**

**Paul :)**


	25. Ember

We hadn’t gone to the forest much in the last few weeks, not since Bella showed up. But noooooo, we weren’t done going there. We were _never_ done going there.

This became evident as soon as I went to sleep, expecting another bout of weird dreams with dancing cherries and misordered swimsuits and Goldfish™ but instead landing in the forest like the good old days. I was calm at first, but then I realized: 1) I’d been kicked out of the Warriors and 2) no one else was there. That’s when I got suspicious.

Luna materialized behind me, willing me to turn around without my permission.

“What do you want from me?” I asked suspiciously.

“Many things,” Luna told me. “But someone is posing as a very large threat to the Sky Siblings right now, and I need you to stop it.”

“Okay, but first: why can’t you do it yourself?”

Luna only smiled. “I’m more powerful. It would beg for mercy as soon as it saw me, and then I would generously spare it. But then it would just keep causing chaos.”

“Then why do you say it’s posing a threat?”

“Because it is.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I know.”

“Well, then, why did you pick me to do this?”

“Because you’re strong. And they’re also strong. And we need your partner.”

“Jake? Why? He’s only a healer.”

“You underestimate him heavily. And so will they.”

“You make no sense. You know that, don’t you?”

“I make less sense than you think.”

“Ha ha. And why should I accept?”

“Simple.”

“You think I should accept just because of a stupid _shapeshifting form_? Don’t think I didn’t see what Ethan and Coral got.”

“Maybe I make more sense than you say. And what you saw Ethan and Coral getting should only make you want the power more.”

“Pff. Yeah.”

“You want it. You want the power, don’t you.”

“…maybe.”

“I told you so. And you’ll accept the mission, because you want to be on the same level as your friends, even if it will leave one farther down than she already is.”

“Why do you think you know my mind so well?”

“Because I do. I know every in and out of your brain. Every ambition, fear, and weakness. And you’ll accept because I do.”

I met Jake at the elevator doors. “Hey,” I said.

“Sup,” he greeted me.

_< oh my god it’s that stupid comic again>_

(Shut up, you’re a fan and you know it.) 

“I guess the team’s finally back together again,” I noted, grinning. “And now we have a quest and everything! Man, I’m excited.”

“Intu didn’t give any directions,” he told me.

“Neither did Luna,” I agreed. “But guess what? That means we have”—I checked how many buttons there were in the elevator—“Fifty-one point five floors to explore!”

“Why are there fifty-one and a half floors? Why can’t there just be fifty-two?” Jake wondered.

“Weird architectural stuff,” I guessed. “Well, I guess we can just go ahead and get in before the elevator doors can decapitate us since we’re sticking our heads in already.”

“I guess,” he agreed.

“Do you think I should text Sky for a list of fishy levels?” I asked Jake, pulling out my phone.

“I mean, I dunno,” he admitted. “It’s a magic interdimensional elevator, do you really expect there to be wi-fi?”

“Good point. But I can at least try, right?”

“Sure, why not. It would help out.”

I tapped out a message to Sky.

**Ember: hey sky**

**were going on the elevator**

**which levels should we check out for sketchy behavior**

**Message did not send**

“Yep,” I confirmed.

“Do you mean ‘yep’ as in it sent, or ‘yep’ as in I was right and it didn’t send?” Jake asked.

“The second one,” I told him.

“Ah. I thought so.”

“Don’t be smug about it,” I warned him. “But seriously—now we have to check _every single level_ for whoever the heck we’re supposed to be hunting down.”

The surprising thing is that it didn’t actually take that long.

The first level we decided to investigate was level one (the forest was on level six) and then go up from there. We got off at level nine, where it looked weird—rotting wood in shambles, a shattered wooden door, and a room that looked like every horror movie villain’s office. That they had to share.

“Yikes,” Jake said nervously.

“Yikes is right,” I agreed. Then I yelled, “COME ON, BAD GUYS! YOU CAN COME OUT OF THERE!! LUNA TOLD US TO KILL YOU AND I DON’T KNOW WHY BUT I’M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY!”

Jake snickered. “Aggressive.”

“Shut up,” I said through gritted teeth. “They’re going to come. I know it. Luna didn’t tell us to go fight a bunch of cowards.”

A woman materialized out of the air. She had medium-length reddish hair, a loose bun, and stern eyebrows.

“So you’re the ones Luna sent for me?” she said. “A healer and… a mini version of Ash. How surprising.”

“Ash is Sky’s younger sister and she’s only a half inch taller than me,” I told her.

“That’s not who I’m talking about,” she said, dismissively waving me off. “But you must be Addison’s friend, huh?”

And she must be her mom. I’d thought she looked a lot like Addison. “Why did you write that page in my notebook?”

“It was Addison’s notebook when I wrote in it,” she noted. “Is it in your possession now? Hmm.”

I cursed.

“Well, anyway, I suppose you came here to fight me?” she asked. “Don’t answer me. I know you did, idiots.”

“I wasn’t going to—“ Jake interjected.

Addison’s mom shushed him, continuing, “Well, I guess you should really fight the brawns of this operation, shouldn’t you?”

My eyes widened. Sky had warned me about this guy, and from the look on Jake’s face, he was having the exact same thought as me.

“Let’s see exactly how strong two children can get,” the matre de McCaffee told us with a taunting edge to her voice. “Meet the worst-named monster in the history of the world—Figuranado.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the hs reference in this is ember saying "hey" and jake saying "sup" which is a reference to dave and davesprite


	26. Ember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ember <> jake intensifies
> 
> the second thanos reference in the entire novel happens
> 
> sky and ember read vast error now

Jake and I scrambled to a ready stance as the woman snapped her fingers, materializing a really ugly guy into the room. He snarled, his teeth showing. My hands lit fire and I pushed them away from my body, on guard. Figuranado lunged at me, rapidly changing forms as he did so.

(Stop playing Minute to Win It, Sky.)

I swung a fire ball-and-chain at him, which fizzled away after impact. Figuranado howled in pain, some of his fur scorched, but kept moving, this time towards Jake.

I rushed to protect him, but Jake was quicker, shoving Figuranado off with an insane burst of energy and throwing him to the ground, knocking him out.

“Whoa!” I said to him. “What was that?!”

Jake ignored me, completely stuck in serious hero mode. A few dozen seconds later, he told me, “I’ll explain later. First we need to focus on this guy.”

I nodded. He was right, even though he was stuck in get-all-the-cheerful-sucked-out-of-you! mode.

I stood up and looked at the guy Jake had just knocked out. He looked pretty unconscious to me, but we hadn’t completed our job yet.

“You should do it—I don’t have much strength left,” Jake told me, his expression looking to be slowly turning back to normal.

I nodded and closed my eyes. A fire ball-and-chain appeared in my hands and I swung it down.

When I opened my eyes again, I was alone in the room with Jake again. The slightly evil and supervillainish mom, along with the body of Figuranado, was gone.

I turned to Jake.

“That was kind of messed up,” he said.

“What? It disappearing? I guess,” I admitted.

“No, not that,” Jake told me. “It’s just… it’s just messed up that we had to kill him. Even though it was our job to. And even though, well, he’s a monster that tried to kill your girlfriend.”

I blushed. “Who, Ava or Addison? I hate them both—“

Jake rolled his eyes. “It’s no secret that you and Addison are a thing. Everyone heard your big spiel on Wednesday.”

I glared at him. “Okay, _maybe_ we _could_ be a thing. But you don’t have to make a big deal about it.”

“I’m not—“

“And it’s _not that big of a thing so shut your freaking mouth about it._ ”

“Wow, way to overreact,” he commented.

“I’m not…” Jake smirked at me, earning a scowl back at him. “Let’s just go.”

“So what was that thing you did?” I asked Jake in the elevator.

He scratched the back of his head. “Well… I figured out that most of the healy stuff I do is basically just me sending energy from one person to another. So I figured… what if I sent some to myself when I wasn’t hurt? I know that sounds weird, but yeah, that’s basically it.”

“Huh,” I said. “Cool.”

We arrived and stepped out. I thought about what Jake said. It was a huge advantage, but it obviously had its downsides—getting drained, both in energy and personality. I bet if he did it more, that would happen less.

We approached the Siblings. “We’ve done as you asked. We’re still technically Warriors, we killed the guy, and we got back. No casualties. Now can you give us the reward?”

Intu studied us. “She tells us the truth—but there’s a hint of a lie underneath.”

I threw my hands up. “We did!”

“Quiet, child,” Luna said, holding up a finger. She turned away with us to converse with her sister and brother.

Jake’s eyes filled with rage. “We’ve done the job! We killed the big guy!”

“But you didn’t kill the _right_ person,” Sola corrected.

“You didn’t even tell us who to kill!” he shouted up to the siblings.

“Enough,” Luna told him, but he was already charging at her.

“RAUGHAHRAAAARGH!” he yelled at them, his arms bent and fists clenched.

“Oh god,” I whispered. But before he could hurt anyone, Luna snapped and he faded away.

“OH MY GOD, DID YOU JUST THANOS SNAP HIM AWAY?” I screamed.

“Shush,” Into told me. “She just brought him to a different location in the forest. He’s fine.”

I gave him the stinkeye. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“He’s right. You have nothing to worry about,” Luna told me.

“Except you,” I noted.

“Right,” Luna agreed. “I will let you go today, however. I will deal with you another day.” She waved a hand, and I woke up again.


	27. Sky

I walked into Ember’s house to find she wasn’t downstairs. I heard a noise coming from the direction of her room, so I walked in there.

She was punching a pillow from the living room very aggressively. I could actually see a few feathers flying out of it.

“Did you just watch a Marvel movie?” I asked her. “I do that sometimes. I swear, those things are so sexist—“

The punching only got louder.

“Was Ivy being stupid again? I can express my, uh, distaste if you want me to—“

Ember stopped punching the pillow and turned to face me.

“No! It’s not that. Stop asking now, okay?”

She started punching the pillow again, and I risked getting punched in the arm to pull it away before it exploded or something.

“What is it?” I asked Ember gently, making eye contact with her.

She looked away. “It’s just… Luna was a jerk yesterday.”

“Did it have to do with that quest she apparently made you go on?”

“How did you know about that?”

“Word travels quickly,” I told her.

She sighed. “Well… yes. She told me I would get the reward, and afterwards, she told me I fought the wrong guy when she didn’t even tell me who I was going after in the first place!” Ember slumped onto her bed. “It was all so stupid.”

“I bet,” I agreed. “It was pretty much just as hard for me. But even then, I got my form even though I failed. Seems kinda biased to me.”

Ember sat up.

“Wait, you got your form?”

I nodded. “I just didn’t like it—it was this really ugly bird, and Luna granted it as I was sleeping, so I just didn’t decide to tell anyone.”

Ember grimaced. “At least you got _something_.”

I considered that line. “Yeah, I guess I’m taking it for granted. Maybe I should use it more. Could be useful, actually.”

“Hey.” Ember leaned over and tapped my arm. “I might have to fight a few battles—I could need someone like you, especially since you’ve officially completed a quest now, I guess.”

I thought for a minute. “Yeah, I guess. The Sibs need _someone_ to overthrow them, after all. And I’m sure as heck not any peacekeeper. They’re kind of jerks, anyway.”

Ember high-fived me. “Alright. Welcome to the depressed-sixth-graders-with-superpowers club. It’s gonna be a long ride.”


	28. Coral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i havent read wof sorry if anything was wrong--

Sky had joined the bad guys.

She hadn’t told me, nor had Ember or Addison, but I could tell by the way she sat with Ember at the end of our lunch table, whispering conspiratorially to each other and pointing at the others at the table.

We all could feel the tension in the air. Who would go next? Bella had stood up, Ember had rebelled, and Sky had become her minion. It was down to Sage and I now.

Sage and I were both fairly loyal, more than Sky and Ember had been, anyway, but one had to fall away.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, revealing the tapper to be Paul.

“Hey,” he said. “We need to talk.”

_Crap._

He pulled me into a seat a few tables away from the chaos of the one I was just sitting at.

“What do you want?” I eyed him suspiciously.

He sat down in front of me. “Listen, Coral, I need you to promise me something.”

I looked sideways at him. “What?”

He sighed. “Look, Sage… she cares about you a lot. Not in a romantic sense, but it would _crush_ her if you decided to go on a different side than her voluntarily.”

Wow, really? “Paul… you _know_ we have to be on different sides. It is _literally predestined_.”

Paul put a foot on his chair and propped one of his hands on his knee. “Coral, have you ever read Wings of Fire?”

“Ew, no, why? Have _you_?”

He blushed a little. “It’s not that bad, really.”

I rolled my eyes. “That wasn’t a straight answer, but whatever. Can you make your point?”

Paul took a deep breath. “So, in the first four books of the series—”

“ _First_ four?!”

“—there are a bunch of dragonets that are literally raised to end a war that they were prophesized to end by some weird cult, but then they find out—surprise—the prophecy was a legit fake, but end the war anyway.”

“So? What’s the point? Are you trying to say it’s a fake?”

“I’m saying it’s not out of the question,” Paul corrected. “Plus, have you heard it whenever it was first told by whoever said it? Or even heard it at all?”

Sadly, he had a point.

I scratched my head. “Well, I mean, I’ll try…”

Paul grabbed my arm, staring me in the eyes, which looked bluer than normal.

“I need you to _promise_. It’s my job to protect her, and leaving her depressed as heck is the last thing I want to do.”

My expression softened. “Wow… she wants me on her side that much?”

He nodded slowly and dramatically, letting the words sink in. “Yup.”


	29. Sage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dramarama b r i t h d y a

Coral sported a fake grin as she walked back from her talk with Paul. She sat down next to me and squeezed my arm. “I think Mr. Mindreader has a thing for you,” she told me.

I gave her the stinkeye. “Maybe platonically.” I smirked. “You know he likes you better.”

Ignoring the second thing I’ve said, Coral’s eyes widened as a real smile came on, growing ear-to-ear. “Wait… you and Paul? Platonic?” she squealed.

I rolled my eyes, still smiling. “Not dating. Just platonic, idiot,” I reminded her.

“I heard. It’s still adorable.” Coral smiled, squeezing my arm again.

I wrestled free, laughing. “Whatever. You know he’s got you chalked up for the romantic department.”

She flicked me. “Hey!”

I readied myself for my twelfth birthday party, adjusting my knee-length skirt. It was January 26th, the Friday after my birthday—January 20th—and I was about to let about ten other girls into my house to get overcaffienated, gossip about love, and play five million overrated songs.

I heard a sharp tap on the door. I checked my fitbit and groaned—it wasn’t even fifteen minutes until the party would officially start, and Dad hadn’t left to get pizza yet.

“I’ll get it!” I shouted to the floors above, and raced out of the basement to open the door for the first arrival.

The earlybird turned out to be Hailey, some friend of Coral’s I didn’t know well but Coral had insisted on inviting. Maybe just as a buffer so that Sky and Ember wouldn’t get into the Warrior drama. Or maybe as a bodyguard. Or an intimidation factor. Or—

“Um…” Hailey squeaked. Right, intimidation. “Where can I put my gift bag?”

I sighed and led her to the basement.

Soon, the whole party had filled up, leaving the basement much more crowded than it should have been. There were maybe twelve people there, which was more than I had ever had at one of my birthday parties.

I could still remember when it was just me and them, playing every day in the mulch of our preschool’s playground. Our teachers would always tell us to stop getting ourselves dirty, and we would just ignore them. A couple of misfits. The brown girl and the girl with a boy haircut.

Of course, those days were long over. They’d been over for more than a year. But I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about them sometimes, even if I tried.

Suddenly, everyone went quiet, snapping me out of it. 

_Crap._

Hailey and one of her friends were on the verge of tears. Hailey’s fists shook as she gave Ember the deathglare.

“Shut up!” she screamed. Ember had an emotionless face on, hands twitching, eager to start a fight against someone that she outmatched by far.

“Why?” Ember asked, crossing her arms. “I know Coral was setting me up, bringing you here. Why would she need protection?”

“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about,” stammered the friend. What was her name? —Sofie, right.

“It’s okay to tell the truth,” Ember said, waving her hand dismissively. “Or maybe she didn’t tell you. She was sort of stupid already, involving her weak friends in this drama just to make her feel safe.”

“What are you saying?” Hailey cried. “I came because I was invited!”

Ember turned to Coral. “Tell them I’m lying. Tell them I’m insane and that they shouldn’t believe me. I’m irrational maniac.”

Coral’s hands glowed blue as she backed away. “Don’t you _dare_ insult my friends.”

“Are you going My Little Pony on us now?” Ember taunted. “Come on. Say I’m lying.”

“Stop!” I cried. I’d had enough. “No one wants to hear it!”

Coral froze as her hands faded from the blue glow.

I stared at her, into her deep blue eyes. “You can’t fight. It’s my freaking birthday party.”

Ember’s face softened. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Let’s forget what just happened.”

And so we continued my birthday party. I didn’t see Ember or Sky talking to Coral for the rest of it.


	30. Ember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: minor swears (h and d)

As I fled Sage’s birthday party at long last, 10:00 having finally arrived, I thought to myself, _What did I just do?_

I was such an idiot. Starting a fight at Sage’s birthday party. Who knew if I was even right? For all I knew, Sage had thought to invite all those girls herself. Or maybe Coral _had_ asked Sage to invite them, but for a different reason? Something not as selfish as I thought?

I shoved the thought away as I got into the car. Sky had a ridiculously late bedtime, so her parents were taking me home. I got into the middle row of their minivan.

Sky got into shotgun next to her dad, who was looking at his phone. I looked behind me just in case he’d let Ash, Sky’s little sister, come. Yep. I didn’t see her that much since Ash was only in fourth grade and went to a different school. Lucky for me, I guess.

Ash was quiet, but, of course, still smirking. Her long hair was dyed teal past her shoulders, and today it was pulled into a ponytail. What was she smirking about this time? I hope she didn’t know anything too… secretive.

I turned back around to face the front of the car, buckling myself into my seat. I swear, I could feel Ash’s muddy-blue eyes, the same as Sky’s, boring into the back of my head through my brown hair. Why couldn’t I be invisible? That would be perfect. Of course, Luna hadn’t thought to give _any_ invisibility. Even Sky, but I guess she was overpowered enough with her wind abilities. I looked at the ceiling of the minivan and sighed deeply. It still felt like Ash was looking at me.

I turned my head to face Ash, ready to give her a talking-to. She quickly looked away. I groaned again. “Can you not?” I said, draping my arm over the back of my seat. She made a mocking face at me, flushed.

Little sisters.

Sky’s dad eventually made it to my house. “Here you are, Ember,” he told me. I stepped down from the minivan. “Bye,” I said, glancing back at most of the Viento family.

Sky waved back at me. Ash said nothing.

**Jake: So.**

**Ember: what**

**Jake: How did the party go?**

**Ember: why are you asking me this**

**Jake: Just wondering.**

**[Ember is silent.]**

**Ember: fine**

**Jake: You sure?**

**You don’t sound fine.**

**Ember: thats just cause of your fancy smart guy texting compared to my normal person texting**

**Jake: What if I’m just too lazy to turn off autocorrect, though?**

**Ember: your use of commas is suspicious tho**

**Jake: Okay, let’s stop changing the subject.**

**Ember: what who me**

**Jake: Yes you, you idiot.**

**Ember: heyyyyy thats not nice**

**Jake: Whatever, HOW DID THE PARTY GO.**

**Ember: i told you it was fine**

**Jake: Were the guests all right?**

**Ember: yes mr fancy englishman sir**

**Jake: >:0**

**Ember: okay fiiiiine**

**it wasnt great**

**for some reason a bunch of corals friends were there**

**Jake: Ugh, really?**

**Ember: hey dont dis her shes fine**

**its just**

**ugh**

**Jake: What?**

**Ember: nothing**

**Jake: But we were getting so close…**

**Ember: no we werent**

**you didnt think I wouldnt put up a fight did you**

**Jake: You already had twice.**

**Ember: exactly**

**Jake: WHAT. HAPPENED.**

**Ember: i told you corals friends were there**

**Jake: Yes, but then what happened?**

**Ember: ugh i just dont want to talk about it okay**

**can you just leave me alone**

**Jake: That’s not how it works, Ember.**

**Ember: why**

**Jake: You know the hell why.**

**Ember: no why**

**Jake: Because we’re freaking moirails.**

**Ember: well dammit**

**we are arent we**

**Jake: Yeah, stupid.**


End file.
